Brain Outsourcing..
- mentallurgical
- Jun 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 2
I remember watching a hilarious scene from a Malayalam movie, where the tutor is asking his 12th grade student to write a letter on behalf of the institute requesting permission to meet an actor who is in town for a movie shoot. He goes like this - "Respected Sir, I want to see you. Please seeing me. I am very interesting to see you..."
This movie scene was indeed the reality until few months back, precisely the Pre AI era. However things have changed now with the advent of AI - "Artificial intelligence". This artificial intelligence has now clearly replaced the lack of intelligence, talent, skill or creativity that was most prevalent in our society. Suddenly and mysteriously, every Tom, Dick and Harry who never read a book in its entirety and who never could write 3 sentences in full without grammatical or spelling mistakes, has become a writer. People who once struggled to write a birthday wish without three typos are now churning out blogs, ebooks, and posts with big words with even bigger confidence. And the secret is no longer a secret now - it is AI.
Writing, when done right, is an act of thinking. It’s original, it’s difficult, and it’s personal. But when you outsource your thoughts or thinking entirely to a machine, you’re not writing—you’re simply curating recycled knowledge. There’s no ingenuity. No lived experience and voice. Sadly, this new breed of pseudo-writers indulge in AI-generated content the same way someone gulps down shots of alcohol—not for nourishment, but for the dopamine rush. Of course, this is feeding their ego, not creation.
But much like a hangover, there’s a price to pay. The side effects are even detrimental as this kind of writing reinforces the brain to not even think but still produce outcome without any effort at all. The brain comfortably stops thinking. An unused brain will soon be dead with respect to cognitive skills as atrophy sets in. Also that would mean you are drawing back your writing skills if at all there was any that you ever had. Over time, these people may find they can no longer form original ideas at all. One day, you will be in a meeting or a discussion and someone will say, “Hey, that article you wrote was amazing! Can you explain it a bit more?” And that is when, they will crumble. Why? Because there were no real thoughts in the first place.
Even funnier, in my area of work, I am in awe when I witness this level of gimmick even at Senior management levels. One of our top-level executives whom I know personally and am sure that until a while ago he would have thought “Python” is just a snake (he has no relevant qualifications, certifications or even work experience in this area)—confidently writing long posts about AI, machine learning and how it is going to revolutionize the industry. This will make any one believe, he is the man behind it. I now realize that the confidence is mostly because he knows that his audience also has no clue. It’s like one person reading from a script to a room full of people pretending to understand.
The intention of this post is not to undermine the value of AI. Yes, AI can help. It can fix grammar, give ideas, and even suggest better sentences. But if it’s doing all the thinking for you, you are not growing. You are outsourcing your brain. Knowledge is to gain and there is no short cut than to read, and writing itself gives original ideas. There is a process and it's a skill to develop. And to all the pseudo writers, it's easy to identify AI generated content that you claim to author.
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